Media Credit: Photo Courtesy of Linda Wagner-mills Character witnesses (from left) Kevin Jenkins, Evan Bourm, Tim Boyd and Sarah Finley defended Western theatre arts professor Perry Mills (far right) Friday. [Click to enlarge]

Five character witnesses for Western theatre arts professor Perry Mills waited outside closed doors to testify on Mills' behalf at a meeting Friday. This was their first chance to formally speak out against Mills' suspension nearly a year earlier.

"There's a lot of people who like the way I do business," Mills said. "It's gratifying to see them come back."

The hearing panel that conducted the meeting scheduled two additional meetings this week at 3 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday in Old Main 340 to determine whether the university should fire Mills.

Western's theatre arts department put Mills on paid suspension for conduct in October 2004, theatre department chair Mark Kuntz said.

The panel conducted five meetings this past week. The Executive Council of the Faculty Senate selected five members from senate committees to comprise the hearing panel.

The informality of Friday's hearing, which was closed to the public, surprised Western junior and character witness Evan Bourm, he said.

"It didn't feel formal at all," Bourm said. "So the whole secretive thing kind of felt weird."

Western's faculty handbook dictates the hearing should be private, unless the hearing panel, Western Provost of Academic Affairs Andrew Bodman and Mills collectively decide it should be public.

Mills and his attorney James Lobsenz wanted to give the public access to the meetings, but the university kept them private because they are discussing personnel issues, Kuntz said.

The meeting Friday started at approximately 3 p.m. when Mills' attorney James Lobsenz asked the character witnesses to wait in the hall until the hearing recessed. The witnesses went in to the room to testify one at a time, Bourm said.

Character witness Sarah Finley, a 2000 Western graduate, said the situation's controversial nature amazed her.

Finley was the last to testify at approximately 5 p.m. The hearing panel did not introduce her to anyone in the room, she said.

"I had no idea who these people were or what they did," Finley said.

Because the theatre department suspended Mills because of insensitive comments he made to female students, Lobsenz asked Bourm and Finley if they thought Mills targeted women, Bourm said.

Bourm told the panel he remembered an incident Mills used girls' Gucci bags as examples of materialism, but did not think it was evidence Mills targeted women.

"Mills was an equal-opportunity griper," Bourm said. "He'd pretty much target everyone."

Finley said she never felt Mills targeted her in class. She said Mills used humor to interact with his students and his behavior toward them was never cruel.

"He was outrageous and used shock value to get students' attention," Bourm said.

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